Regarding the case of Lee Marvin Payne the board noted that while he has been in a community correctional facility in Atlantic Canada for the past six months without committing an offence, he hasn’t been presented with the opportunity to reoffend.

According to the decision, the 37-year-old is always accompanied by a staff member of the Correctional Service of Canada when he leaves the facility for appointments, which is another condition of the board.

The board is reviewing his case because he is under a long-term supervision order with a condition that he live in a correctional community facility. The board has to determine if the condition is necessary in order to protect the public — which it did.

Having served his time, the only thing the board can do under the order is tell Payne where to live and it isn’t prepared to let him live on his own.

“Considering the type of offence you could commit, the extent of some of the elements supporting the condition, as well as the duration during which some of those elements have been present in your life, the imposed condition is valid for a period of 180 days, which is the maximum duration allowable by law,” the board concluded.

The decision was made March 6, but filed Wednesday.

“The board is of the opinion that there is insufficient information to be persuaded that you are now able to manage your sexual urges and implement program material when dealing with high-risk situations,” says the decision.

“Your offences have been predatory in nature and could have ended with greater violent sexual deviant activities had the victims not been able to flee or summon help,” it says.

Lured girl

Payne, considered a high risk to reoffend in a dangerous sexual manner, was convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in

St. John’s in 2009. He lured her to his apartment with the promise of cigarettes and money.

In June 2011, he was sentenced to five years in prison, but it was reduced to three years and three months due to pretrial custody. In November 2012, it was further reduced by the Newfoundland Court of Appeal because it said the judge erred by giving little, if any, consideration to Payne’s rehabilitation.

He ended up serving about 27 months and was released in September 2013 when the board had to release him under the law.

Originally from Cox’s Cove, on the province’s west coast, Payne’s long-term supervision order is in effect until 2018.

It was first imposed in 2004, but when an offender commits a crime while under an order — which he did many times — it is suspended until the sentence is served, and then the order kicks in again.

A spokesman for the board said while Payne is under that order it can impose conditions and review his release in the community, but that’s it. Once the order is served, the board will no longer have any control over his movements.

But for the time being, it says Payne’s propensity for sexual violence against his victims is reason enough to keep him under close scrutiny.

“Your offending patterns shows that you can go to great extents in order to satisfy your sexual urges, that you lacked consequential thinking and that you were acting impulsively,” it says.

The board said Payne has also shown a substantial degree of indifference towards the impact of his crimes on his victims, and some of the offences have resulted in serious harm to them.

In and out of jail for sex offences against females for most of his adult life, Payne was convicted of sexually assaulting 17 girls and women between the ages of nine and 58 when he lived in Ontario in the 1990s.

When he got out of prison in 2004, an employee of the Correctional Service of Canada met with the RNC the day before Payne was to arrive back in the province.

A memo, which was leaked to The Telegram at the time, was circulated to all departments of the RNC informing all officers of his release into the community. It said based on Payne’s history, his method is to hide in the bushes on walking trails, enclosed wooded areas or under bridges. He is known to indecently expose himself to women and then attack and sexually assault them.

In its March 6 decision, the National Parole Board noted that Payne’s case-management team suggested it would be premature to lift the residency condition, even though his activity in the community has been positive. His risk remains high and he hasn’t demonstrated a continued and sustained success for an extended period.